Will Anquan Boldin get a new contract?
by Donwhon121 on Jan 1, 2010 3:40 PM MST
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Let me premise this by saying, I Love Anquan Boldin.
I Love his Fire, his tenacity, the way he trucks DB's like they're his B***h.
But as Cards fans we need to face the facts. The Whiz set this all up. Kurt Warner was signed to a 2 year extension and Boldins contract has 2 years left on it. 2 years to develop both Early Doucet and Steve Breaston and 2 years to ride Kurt Warner to his career death bed and start a Steeler-esque offense. As in, 2 headed running attack with 1 Pro-Bowl and 2 very capable WR's.
We have seen Matt Leinert this year. When he is comfortable, he runs the offense well. But, he will never be a gun slinger like Warner. Whisenhunt won't ask him to be. As he has done in the years since he got here, he will play to his most talented players' strengths. Warner will get the ball 68% of the time to keep Q and Fitz happy and 32% of the time will be spent developing a run game. When Leinert takes over, I suspect this will shift to a 55% percent run and 45% Pass (Primarily to Larry).
This question becomes, can we expect Warner to stay healthy another year (Maybe), will Q play out the last year of his contract quietly (NOPE), and is Leinert ready to be the starting QB in a more balanced offense (eh). If we win the Super Bowl I see Warner retiring. I have never heard a QB talk more about his long term (after football) health. On the same note, I think we could use Q as trade bait for a O Tackle and then use the rest of the money we have to resign the D (Dansby, Rolle, and possibly rework Dockett's contract cause he won't stay quiet this offseason either.
Sorry Hawk, felt the need to talk about the offseason. Especially with so many questions this weekend we have no control over.
Disagreements?
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Revenge of the Birds' (ROTB) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of ROTB's editors.
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sounds reasonable, but ...
The only part of this scenario I question is whether they can afford to go to a run-based offense. Wells is terrific and gains alot on his own, but without a dynamic passing threat it may not work. How many teams are really successful these days without a big passing attack? That brings up the Leinart question. I think he could be successful with a predominantly run-based offense that doesn’t require too much from him, but why handicap yourself with a QB who is that limited? I personally am not at all impressed with Leinart. He appears to be overweight, is not nimble like some other large QB’s like Roethlesberger, likes to throw the ball while moving backwards which results in “floaters” that are often picked off, and, based on his career completion percentage, is not particularly accurate. It’s not too early to line up some serious competition for when Warner leaves. I haven’t seen enough of St. Pierre to know if he could be that competition, but it he cannot, the Cards should draft somebody who at least has the potential to do so.
+1 BPaul
On all your points. The NFL is a passing and QB-driven league. If a QB is “limited” physically he must posses outstanding “intangibles” to be effective. We’re sharing a brain completely on everything you wrote except BSP. St. Pierre is not the answer either. I’m really looking forward to the off-season discussion more than anyone.
St. Pierre
I wish I’d been able to see him in the preseason, but not hearing good things.
He was awful in preseason.
I think we go after a QB in the later rounds of the draft. I really like Max Hall out of BYU. I think he would do well in Whiz’s system.
I also think with what Whiz is trying to build here in AZ that Leinart could play well also. Seems like he is trying to move towards a 2 back system that limits the QB to about 25 passes a game, which is what I think suits Leinart.
St. Pierre
Doesn’t want to sit around as #3. He wants the chance to start. Expect him to go this off season. If Warner does retire he may stay and try for the starting spot. Drafting a QB to compete with Lienart is a good idea.
Too bad he isn't better than that number three spot.
I like having as a number three but he just has not shown me enough to prove himself worthy of anything better than that number three spot.
BSP is a system player...
…and was with Whis in Pitt. This is the only team BSP would even make the final 53 for. He’s like an assistant coach that could play in a major disaster like the Carolina game in ‘07…except he wasn’t here. BSP is done after this year but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retained in some manner of Whis’ staff as an “Offensive Quality Control” coach.
Don't waste time or Time will waste you.
Quite a few
disagreements and agreements. First, head coaches don’t negotiate contracts so Whisenhunt couldn’t have set all this up. I still think it’s very possible that Breaston leaves before Boldin does, and Doucet takes his spot as our #3 WR. Dockett will have to wait to get his deal re-done, it should be clear to everyone by now that the FO won’t be pressured into new deals before they’re ready. I think Rolle is likely gone regardless of what happens, because if it doesn’t make a lot of sense to overspend on two WR’s, it makes less sense to have a significant portion of the cap allocated to two safeties. We’d all like to see Dansby resigned but not for the type of money that he’ll likely be asking for.
I do agree that if we take it all this year that Warner wil ride off into the sunset, I’m not entirely convinced that he won’t anyways. If that happens, the offense will have a different look to it, but as you pointed out the Whiz and Grimm want a more balanced approach so that change was inevitable.
Bottom line to all of this – Boldin is a legit superstar, he’s everything to the offense that Wilson is to the defense. The other players mentioned (who can realistically leave) are more easily replaced than he is. I like Doucet much better as the new #3 than I like Breaston as the new #2, Rolle’s replacement was selected in round 3 last year, and Dockett will have to tough it out like everyone else and play out his current deal. I still see Boldin eventually getting his new contract and retiring as he should, in Cardinal red.
+1
I agree with many of your assessments. I really think Warner is done this year no matter what. They way he talks about his health, I think he is ready to spend time with the family and not on the field. He has been great and I respect any decision he makes. I just hope he doesn’t pull a Farve on us.
I think Leinart can do well. He will never be Warner, especially if we keep running three wide with no TE help to block. Leinart is use to more time to pass. I know he can be very accurate when he has time. So unless he learns how to remain calm under the pressure of a blitz and can release the ball quickly after progressing through his reads he has a very good chance. If not, next year we are going to be drafting a QB. We should probably draft one in the later rounds anyways.
We should resign Boldin. His obvious talents aside, his intangibles are more important. Fitz is a humble and quite leader, Boldin is a loud and aggressive leader. We need both kinds on our team.
At safety, if Rolle wants a payday, sorry bro-ham, peace! I respect what he done for us, but he can be replaced.
At LB we need to be careful. Our LB core is not playing well, but we can’t do much because he have little depth. I hope Haggins is just having a down year. We really need some youth. Through FA and the draft I hope we can take care of this.
They are who we thought they were!
by Jesse Reynolds on Jan 1, 2010 11:36 PM MST up reply actions
I know coaches don't negotiate contracts
But, I guarantee Whiz is in on the discussions before they sign anyone. And why shouldn’t he be. At the same time, I don’t think he is going to be able to convince the organizationt to spend the money on Q when so much of the D is going to be leaving this offseason. We have seen little to nothing of Toller this year so far. I know he is the Nickel back now because we lost some DB depth but he is still green. He was beat pretty bad a couple of times in the preaseason.
Dansby, at this point, is pretty irreplaceable. We are not going to find anyone in free agency. Especially with the news that most free agents will be restricted (except him, which means his big payday). Maybe Toller does step up, that still leaves an angry Dockett represented by the all time worst negotiators of all time. (Sit down and wait Rosenheist)
Last, I need to reply to the idea that St. Pierre has a better chance of running this offense than Leinert. They were both given the shot this preseason and Leinert made St. Pierre look like a high school freshmen. Even if St. Pierre sticks around, Leinert has been the golden boy back up all season. He received all kinds of praise from the coaches on his new found work ethic and attention to detail. Time will tell who takes this offense, and how it is run. But in the end, I think Q is either out as trade bait, or he’s going to hold out. As good as he has been lately, he is losing money each year he plays with this contract and doesn’t cash in with another team.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
Who seeks peace must prepare for war.
Changes
are inevitable, but neither Rolle nor Dansby are as good at their respective positions as Boldin is at his. It’s justifiable to spend top dollars on a legit All-Pro, which Boldin is. As much as I like both Rolle and Dansby, they’re borderline All-Pros who will likely command All-Pro money. We are dangerously thin at inside LB, but I believe that can be addressed in the 2010 draft. Rolle’s replacement, for lack of a better term, would be Rashad Johnson (if he improves and becomes who they projected him to be).
I do agree that the debate over Leinart and St. Pierre has been settled. Two seasons ago, I thought St. Pierre looked better in training camp than Leinart did, and in the preseason as well (although it wasn’t a fair comparison since St. Pierre only faced 2nd and 3rd string defenses). This past year it wasn’t even close, St. Pierre performed terribly. I’ve heard it was due to playing through an injury but regardless, the improvements Leinart made pushed him well past St. Pierre and into a potential starter that I think the coaching staff has confidence in. If anything, if I was St. Pierre I might be a little worried about my job security because I could see us addressing the backup QB situation in the draft this year with Warner returning being a question mark.
Definitely forgot about Johnson
Haven’t been able to see any of him this year. Not sure what we might be able to get from him. But I whole heartedly agree with your comparison between Boldin, Rolle and Dansby. Hopefully we can find more ILB help in the draft, I don’t really think Haggans in the answer. The difference when he replaces Dansby or Hayes is too significant. 0
By the Way, for the first time in my life, GO COWBOYS and GO GIANTS
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
Who seeks peace must prepare for war.
+1
I hear that, easier just to look at the scoreboard than it would be to sit there and have to cheer for them.
Leinart as starter
I know that Leinart hasn’t always looked the greatest in the times he came off the bench but imagine how hard that in when you don’t get the reps with the first team and time to build rapport. I really think he can be a good quarterback in the league, it’s just that Kurt Warner is better. Kurt Warner would have started over 90% of the quarterbacks in the league. Not that I’m in a rush to see Kurt go, but I’m interested to see what Leinart can do as the full time starter with the line playing as well as it has the last couple years. He showed real promise as a rookie with a team that is not nearly as good as this one and he was battered often because the line wasn’t protecting him (and he takes a little longer to get rid of the ball that Kurt).
I’m interested to see what we get out of Toler and Johnson. We have been drafting well lately and it seems like players develop a lot in their second year under this coaching staff. It’d be great if those two players are able to step in at nickel and safety should Rolle go elsewhere.
Yeah,
I disagree, and rather strongly. However, I just tacked that disagreement to the bottom of the “If, buts, candy, nuts” article. You can read it there, but I’ll give you part of it here.
Isn’t it enough that the Cardinals are trashed and disdained and just flat out ignored by everybody from the fans of other teams to one of our own local writers who covers the team to the whole national media? Do we fans, ourselves, have to have so little respect for our own team that we can’t even wait for season’s end before we start dismantling the team?
There’s about 5 weeks left to the season, and some playoff games and a Super Bowl to be won. Can we wait until then before we start cleaning out lockers?
Okay, what you wrote isn’t so bad—at least it’s not meanspirited, and there actually is some logic to it in a way, but still, I think we all need to stay focused on winning a Super Bowl. It sounds a little corny, but Coach Whiz said it: We do this together.
Don’t underestimate the power of “prayer”—or in this case, hope, desire, faith, or whatever. There is real power in group focus. And there will be a whole, boring offseason to kick this crap around.
Never hurts to plan ahead!
They are who we thought they were!
by Jesse Reynolds on Jan 2, 2010 5:32 AM MST up reply actions
PayQuan
Let’s hope so… Here’s something to check out. http://www.payquan.com/
As much as I love Boldin...
If Doucet has anything to do with it, Boldin will be gone next year. We’ll see how Early does next week. I’d have to say that it would be awfully tough to keep Q next year.
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